All For Family
by Aetherschreiber
Summary: Family ain't easy. Especially when most of them carry weapons of various types and there's a monolithic, oppressive government working against you. Just a few little scenes that came to mind after the end of "Legacy of Mandalore."
1. Family By Birth

**Family by Birth**

Sabine wasn't certain how long she stood there, in the snow, watching the patch of sky that the _Phantom_ had disappeared into. It had been so strange, watching it go, taking Kanan and Ezra with it, cutting her off from Zeb and Chopper and Rex and everyone else. She hadn't felt like this since the day she had left her clan behind; unattached and drifting.

In her mind, she knew there was a difference. Kanan and Ezra had respected her choice, even agreed with it. She knew that she had their support, even if they weren't right there by her side. But her heart didn't seem to give a damn. That was probably why a stray tear was making its way down her cheek right now.

Oh yeah, they would _never_ be hearing about this!

Quietly chuckling at the thought of good-natured ribbing she would receive from her de-facto family, she wiped the wetness away from her eyes. She was so wrapped up in the image of it that she didn't hear the footsteps in the snow behind her until they were almost on top of her. Her spine stiffened a little and she nearly jumped.

"Hey," a voice said over her shoulder. For a moment - just an instant - she could have sword had heard heard Ezra. But the voice resolved itself into another one, just as familiar but somehow more distant.

Mercifully, Tristan wasn't making a move to get her to turn around or look at him or anything equally as annoying and humiliating.

"Hey," she answered back, softly, trying to get her thoughts under control.

"So, crazy day, huh?" Tristan went on.

"Yeah," Sabine replied, awkwardly, "how's mother taking everything?"

"Well, you know how she gets," he replied, taking a couple steps forward to come even with Sabine, "silent and serious and pondering. Trying to be all fearless-leader-like even though she's just as messed up as the rest of us."

Sabine gave a huff, looking down at the Darksaber, still held in one hand. "Guess I kinda tipped over the jogan cart, coming back with this thing, huh?"

"Yeah, but it needed tipping," Tristan replied, "it was time we were reminded what being Mandalorian is all about."

"The family, the clan, and the house," Sabine said as if reciting by rote, "all these shall come before all others. It's not as easy as it sounds, is it?"

"Not when the Empire's involved, too," Tristan agreed, "they mess up everything."

"You have no idea," Sabine said sadly.

A warm hand landed on her shoulder and she looked up at her brother. He looked a little afraid but also like he was determined at last to look at something with fresh eyes.

"Tell me about it?" he asked, without a hint of sarcasm or irony.

She gave him a weak smile and rested her hand over his. "I don't even know where to begin, Tristan," she said, "there's so many explanations that I owe you all. Some of it pretty unbelievable. Honestly, I'm a little scared everyone's going to call me a liar and boot me back out again." She had said the last part as lightly and flippantly as she could, but somehow she knew that Tristan was going to see right through that.

Tristan looked down at her, a little aghast. "Is that really what you think of us? Of your family?" he asked.

Sabine gave a sigh. "Do you really want an answer for that?"

"No," he admitted, "but maybe I should hear it anyway. I've been wrapped up in my own point of view long enough."

And so they stood there, for another hour or more. Sabine spoke and Tristan listened. She told him about the academy on Mandalore, of helping to develop weapons only to see them turned on her own people. She told him of the Empire's merciless murder of children simply because they happened to have a connection to the Force. She told him of Ketsu and their falling out and of how she had come to join Kanan, Hera, and Zeb on the _Ghost_ and how Ezra joined them. And finally, when she was ready, as if all of that had just been a run-up to the important thing, she told him about how she had felt when she stood up to the Empire for her family only to have them cast her out.

"Wow," was the only thing Tristan could manage when she was done.

"Yeah," Sabine said in agreement.

"Guess we really screwed that up," he said.

"I did too," Sabine said, "and I'm willing to accept that I might never really be a part of the family again, but-"

"Hey, whoa, stop!" Tristan exclaimed, turning to face her and resting both hands on her shoulders. "Maybe things are going to be weird for a while, but we're not making that mistake again, Sabine. What kind of family would we be if we didn't give blood a second chance? We wouldn't even _be_ one."

"Tristan, would you say that if I wasn't your sister?" she asked. "Would you think that of me if I was just some other random Mandalorian from another house and clan?"

"Probably not," he admitted, "but I should also be ready to face that whole other clan standing behind you if you were. Or at the very least, your big brother."

"Blood matters," a new voice broke in on the conversation. Brother and sister both looked up to see their mother only a few steps away. "Two words to sum up what it means to be Mandalorian. We've all let the Empire come between us for too long. It is time to be Mandalorian again."

Sabine's eyes watered anew as she looked over to Ursa, filling faster than they had in years. She felt her knees weaken a little and before she knew it, she felt Tristan's arm around her, holding her close to him, holding her up. A moment later and Ursa had come forward, wrapping an arm around each of her children.


	2. Family By Choice

Family by Choice

The silence in the _Phantom_ was profound. Both Kanan and Ezra were grappling with their emotions. Somehow, it was unspoken between them that no words needed to be exchanged. But they could still feel each others' presence, could still reach out for support. And they both needed it.

Kanan was content to let Ezra fly them back to Atollon. He wasn't doing very much flying these days anyway. And it let him relax his senses, retreating to that old, familiar, light thrum of the Force that he had grown up with; before he had lost his sight and had let It in like never before. And the Force seemed to understand.

"Kanan?" Ezra finally ventured, softly, almost as if afraid of his question, "what are we going to tell Hera, Zeb, and Chopper? About Sabine, I mean."

Kanan gave a sigh. "We tell them what happened," he said, simply, "that her family has accepted her back and she chose to stay to help them."

"Well, yeah," Ezra allowed, "but, I mean... is it really okay that we're just leaving her there? By herself? Shouldn't we stick around for a while, make sure she's all right with them? After all, the first thing her mother said to her was that she was going to put her on trial as a traitor. How do we know she's safe?"

"Family won out in the end, Ezra," Kanan said, "everything Ursa did was to try and save Sabine from the Empire. Besides, Sabine can take care of herself and she has Rau to watch her back."

"Sure," Ezra said, sounding distracted, "family won out."

Kanan sensed something else, although he figured that anyone who could hear Ezra's tone could have figured that out. He reached over from the co-pilot's seat and rested a hand on the teen's shoulder.

"This isn't really about whether or not Sabine is safe with her clan, is it?" he said. Ezra didn't answer and Kanan felt the boy shudder a little, giving a very wet-sounding sniff "Wait, are you-?"

"What? No!" Ezra answered a little too immediately, in a tone that was more than a little too bright. "Why would I do that? She's where she wants to be. Things are working out for her. I'm happy for her, really." There was another little sniff that bellied his insistence.

And that was when Kanan knew that he had retreated a little too far into his own thoughts. He had left Ezra a little too alone with his. He dropped his hand from Ezra's shoulder. Hesitating for a moment, he reached up and removed his mask, the air hitting his face wet and cold in tiny spots on the tops of his cheek bones.

"Ezra, look at me for a second," he said, "it's all right. I've been doing the same since the hatch closed."

Ezra gave a sigh and Kanan sensed him swivel the pilot's seat his direction. "I just," he said, his voice cracking a little, "I thought we were her family."

"That isn't changing," Kanan said, reaching out for Ezra's shoulder again, "just because she isn't in the room across the hall doesn't make that any different."

"I know, I know," Ezra replied, giving another sniff and rubbing at his eyes, "everything's just starting to go so fast. First the fleet, and the base. We're doing more and more for the Rebellion in groups of other people or just without each other. I feel like we're... I dunno... coming apart."

Kanan leaned back in the copilot's seat, facing forward. "I know what you mean," he said, "I do kinda miss the old days, when it was just us back on Lothal."

"Yeah," Ezra agreed, sounding amused, "stealing jogan fruit and meilooruns, smuggling puffer pigs..."

Kanan gave a small chuckle. "Vizago."

"Vizago," Ezra agreed in kind, then gave another sobering sigh, "I guess I never realized how quickly I had gotten used to being a part of something, again. I was on my own for so long before you guys came along."

"I know how you feel," Kanan replied, "before I met Hera, the rest of the galaxy could pretty much piss off as far as I was concerned. It was only about a month later that I realized that I wasn't thinking about moving on, like I always had before."

Ezra paused again, as if hesitating to ask what he wanted to ask next. "Kanan is it true that the Jedi Order didn't let its members have families?"

"There were a few exceptions," said Kanan, "but for the most part, yeah. We were taught to remain unattached, so that we could always go where we were needed, do what we needed to do."

"Sounds kind of unrealistic, to me," said Ezra, "and you don't seem to have bothered with that."

"Let's just say I take a different stance on it," Kanan replied, "when I was completely unattached to anyone, I was about the worst version of myself I could have been. I don't see how that can help anyone."

"It's tough, though, huh? It's hard to watch family leave. It's only been a few hours and I miss Sabine already, just like I still miss my parents."

"If it helps," said Kanan, feeling moisture growing anew in the corners of his eyes, "it's kinda new to me, too. It's been a long time since anyone walked away or was taken away from me, too. I was always the one doing the walking."

"I guess... her clan probably felt kinda like this when she left them, huh."

"Maybe," Kanan allowed, "but Ezra... we may not be able to control how we're feeling, but we can control how we react. We can't get angry with her, the way her clan did."

"I'm not angry," Ezra said, once again a little too quickly. Kanan shot him a skeptical raised eyebrow. "Okay, maybe a little," he admitted, "but c'mon! She _walked away_ from us, Kanan. She chose them over us. I can't really help it. I guess blood really is thicker than water."

Kanan gave an amused chuckle.

"What?" Ezra asked.

"Most people get that saying wrong, you know," Kanan replied.

"What do you mean?"

"The whole phrase is _the blood of a vow is thicker than the water of the womb._ The circumstances of our birth don't matter. It's the promises we make and the loyalties we have that define our connections to others. This isn't any easier on Sabine. But she's doing it as much for us as for them."

"How so?"

"Clan Wren and a unified Mandalore could be essential to the Rebellion," said Kanan with a shrug, "in a sense, she's defending our flank. It's a sacrifice she's making. We _have_ to remember that. It'll tear you up, otherwise."

"Yeah, I know," Ezra said around a heavy sigh, "not like I haven't felt _that_ before."

No explanation of that statement seemed to be forthcoming. But Kanan had the sense that he was supposed to feel guilty about something, himself.

"What are you getting at?"

"Never mind, it's nothing," Ezra said.

"Ezra..."

"Really, it's nothing, don't worry about it."

"Padawan..."

"You're not just going to let this go, are you?"

"Not a chance," said Kanan, "it's obviously bugging you, so out with it."

Ezra gave a groan and Kanan imagined that he was giving one of his trademark uncomfortable eye rolls, ruffling his hair with one free hand.

"I was just... reminded, that's all," Ezra said at length, "about the comm tower on Lothal when you gave yourself up to buy the rest of us time to get away. You-"

Ezra stopped short again, breath catching in his throat. Kanan didn't press, but turned his face toward the teen expectantly.

"You... You lied."

Whatever Kanan had been expecting, it wasn't that. "Wha...?" he asked, blinking and his head tilting to one side just a little. "When did I... But that was two years ago. Ezra, what are you talking about?"

"What you said right before you closed the door," Ezra said.

"Ezra, I honestly don't remember-"

"You said you'd be right behind me!"

The excalmation was like a slap in Kanan's face. He sat up a little straighter in his seat, a shallow gasp. For a moment, he remembered Kaller, the last thing he had heard from his own master. All at once an understanding came to him, but also a new pang of guilt.

"Did I really say that?" he breathed, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees.

"Yes! Yes you did!" Ezra exclaimed. "You said you'd be right behind me and then you fused the stupid door closed and just gave up! Like you didn't matter! Like we... like we wouldn't even care."

Feeling like he had been punched in the gut, Kanan dropped his head into his hands, breathing to try and keep control. He could still hear Master Depa's voice, telling him the same. But this time, instead of hearing a lie, he heard a desperate plea, a sacrifice born of...

Born of love.

"Kanan I'm sorry," Ezra said, his emotion beginning to cool, "I didn't mean-"

"My master said the same thing," Kanan let drop, breaking off Ezra's hurried apology, "right before... I put the shoe on the other foot, I guess."

"I shouldn't have told you that, I'm sorry."

"No, no, Ezra," Kanan said, "it's all right. I was that way too and I'm just now under... you can be mad at me for that, I don't mind."

There was a long, heavy silence between them. Kanan just barely heard a nervous tapping of Ezra's fingers on the _Phantom_ 's controls.

"Well, that conversation didn't go where I thought it would," Ezra said at last.

"Yeah," Kanan agreed, leaning back in the copilot's seat again, "yeah, me neither. Probably needed to happen, though. Probably should have happened two years ago."

"So uh... we're _not_ going to tell Hera about this conversation, right?"

"By the cosmic dark, no!" Kanan exclaimed. "She'll never let us hear the end of it!"

"Yeah," Ezra said with a chuckle, "she'd probably lock us in the 'fresher just to make sure we were all done with it. Or worse, she'd tell Bendu to shut us into that spider cave again."

They both gave a simultaneous shudder at the thought.

"You know I feel silly saying it," said Ezra, "but I sorta wish I wasn't too big for a hug, right about now."

"Who says you are?"

"Well, no one, I guess, I just feel a little childish, that's all."

"Just get over here."

Almost before Kanan had finished saying it, a warm mass of teenager was flung into him, arms wrapping around and holding on as if for dear life. Feeling tension leaving his shoulders, Kanan returned the gesture.

"You'll never be too big for a hug from family," said Kanan.

"I'm really gonna miss her, Kanan," Ezra mumbled into his shoulder.

"I know," Kanan replied, "me too."

* * *

NOTE: The thing about the "blood is thicker than water" saying is actually true. Originally, the saying was "the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb." I have adapted it here for use in the Star Wars universe.


	3. Family By Circumstance

Family by Circumstance

"You _left her there_!?"

Ezra had to admit, it was going about as well as he had expected it would. Kanan, however, seemed genuinely surprised by Hera's reaction, judging from the jump he gave at her tone of voice.

"Well... yeah...?" he ventured in reply, uncertainly.

"You just... _left_ her there," Hera went on, "just like that?"

"There _is_ kind of a mess to clean up with her clan-"

"Her clan?" Hera yelled, a bitter laugh accompanying it. "The same one that cast her out as a traitor? The same one she _ran_ from? _That_ clan? You just left her with _them_?" She gave Kanan a shove. "I don't believe you!"

"I gotta admit, Kanan," Zeb ventured from a few steps away, in his place next to Ezra, "it does seem a little dangerous."

Ezra finally felt compelled to jump into the fray, knowing that even a Jedi Knight wouldn't be a match for the combined ire of the Twi'lek and the Lasat by himself. Besides, they hadn't been there. He had.

"It's not like we could have stopped her," he said, "it's what she wants. What were we supposed to do?"

"Did you even _try_ to do anything?" Hera railed, her focus still on Kanan.

"Well, no, but-" Kanan began, but he was cut off again by the irate Hera.

"No?!"

"Will you calm down?" Kanan was finally finding his footing in the so-called conversation, beginning to defend his ground, no longer taken by surprise at Hera's reaction.

"Don't you _will-you-calm-down_ me, Kanan Jarrus!" Hera roared, giving Kanan several more shoves, sending him staggering backward until he was up against the sandy red surface of one of Atollon's strange petal-like stone formations. "What is the matter with you? Sabine is family and you just left her behind, without a thought!"

"With her family!" Kanan shot back, spreading his hands out before him, palms up, in an attempt at a placating gesture. "We pushed her into taking up the Darksaber. Where did you think it was going to lead?"

"I rather assumed it would lead to her bringing her clan back here to fight with us!" Hera exclaimed, finally turning away from Kanan and throwing her hands up in frustration. "You should have made her come back!"

"I can't _make_ her do anything!" Kanan replied in kind. "It's not like she's my daughter!"

"No, but she may be the closest thing you've got!"

Ezra winced at that, suddenly very uninterested in getting in between the two of them. Next to him, he felt Zeb cringe as well, even backing up from the scene a step. Clearly the two of them had been forgotten in Kanan and Hera's verbal back-and-forth. And neither one of them was about to make themselves a target again. Hera needed to burn off her frustrations and poor Kanan was the unfortunate target. There was nothing to be done.

Ezra felt Zeb's elbow nudge his side and looked up at the Lasat. With a nod of his head, Zeb indicated an area away from the spectacle, over his shoulder. Ezra gave a grimace and nodded back. As one, they carefully took a few silent steps backward away from the arguing pair, hoping to avoid notice. As they went, Ezra spotted Copper, its recording device whirring away, pointed at the scene.

"Chop!" he admonished, giving the droid a knock on its orange head. "Leave 'em alone!"

Chopper gave a disgruntled noise, but put away its recording device and reluctantly trundled after Ezra and Zeb.

"That was starting to get ugly," Ezra said, as soon as he was certain they were far enough away from Hera's tirade to remain unnoticed.

Chopper gave a series of sarcastic-sounding noises.

"Entertaining?!" Zeb exclaimed. "Hera's gonna chew Kanan's ears off!"

"Yeah, I kinda feel bad just leaving him to it," Ezra said.

"Not me," Zeb replied, "sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor. If there's one thing I've learned over the years it's not to get in the middle of a man and wife when they're arguing about family."

"Uh Zeb," Ezra said mock confusion, sitting down on a boulder formation they had come to, "you do remember that Kanan and Hera aren't actually married, right?"

"Well, not _technically_ ," Zeb said, flopping onto the boulders next to him, "but they're kind of a _little_ married, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess," Ezra said with a chuckle.

"Although," Zeb ventured, "what does that make us?"

"Well, you're clearly the crazy uncle."

"Oi!"

"I didn't say it was a bad thing!"

Chopper spoke up, rocking back and forth on his legs and making questioning noises.

"You?" Zeb asked, placing one prehensile foot against the droid and giving a push. "You're the bad influence."

Chopper clearly didn't like that and gave a protest, waving his pincers in the air like fists as he sputtered out some invective or another in binary.

"I guess... that makes me and Sabine the kids, then," Ezra said with a reluctant sigh.

"Uh huh," Zeb confirmed, "and dad just let daughter out to play with the dangerous kids without consulting mom."

"Hera's gonna kill him," they said in unison, with realization.

A silence passed between them as they both pondered the distant horizon.

"You know," Zeb said with a sigh, "I can't actually say that I blame her, though. I'm not really happy about this myself. Maybe you should have stayed with her. Just for a while, to make sure she's all right."

"Like Sabine would put up with that," Ezra shot back, "besides, with Gar Saxon gone, the Mandalorians need the chance to figure out what they're going to do. It's best if let them handle it themselves."

Zeb gave an understanding harrumph. "Fair cop," he said, then shook his head, "I don't get Mandos."

"Me neither," Ezra said, flopping backward to lay on the stone surface of the boulder, staring up at the sky, "you know, if you had told me three years ago I was gonna get this weepy over Sabine leaving, I'd have told you that you were crazy."

"How so?" Zeb asked.

"Are you kidding? The only time she gave me the time of day back then was to make fun of me."

"Could have been worse," Zeb allowed, "when we first met, she was shooting at me."

Ezra shot back up into a sitting position to look at him with surprise. "Shooting at you?!"

"Well, to be fair," said Zeb, "we were kind of trying to steal the same Imperial supply shipment at the time." He gave a laugh. "We attacked the bucket-heads. She attacked the bucket-heads. We made off with a crate of goods. She set off explosives. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship!"

"Argh! This is so messed up!" Ezra exclaimed, flopping on to this back again. "What is _wrong_ with me? I need to get a grip! It's not like we're never going to see her again and it's not like she's _actually_ family, anyway."

"Hey," Zeb said, giving Ezra's shoulder a punch, "she _is_ family, in every way that matters." Zeb gave a sigh and returned to pondering the horizon. "Take it from me, kid," he said, "as far as I know, I'm the only one of my people who isn't in hiding on Lirasan. I watched the family I was born to die on Lasan and I never thought I'd be a part of something like that again. But sometimes... family kind of forms itself, if you get me."

"You mean, like tossing a bunch of messed-up nerf-herders and vagabonds together on a rebel ship and dumping them on Lothal to fight the Empire?"

"Exactly," Zeb said with a laugh, "family of circumstances, kid. Sometimes, you get just about as much of a say in it as the one you're born to. It's where you go with it from there that matters."

Silence descended upon them again. Ezra stared up into the sky. Zeb continued his study of the horizon. Somewhere, in the distance, a convor gave a hoot. It was answered by another a few moments later.

"So..." Ezra said, trying to be nonchalant and not really succeeding, "you wanna go see if we can get a signal through to Krownest or something?"

"Yup," Zeb said, standing up from the boulder, "c'mon, Chop." He turned and began walking back toward the main complex of the base. Ezra scrambled back off the boulder and caught up with him and Chopper, too, wheeled along behind them.


End file.
